Animal Behavior - Pwpt 4

Focal animal sampling

• Following individuals and recording behaviors over a set time period

• Used for ethograms and activity budgets

Scan sampling

• Scanning a population at specific intervals and recording all behaviors and locations

• Used to evaluate space or habitat use, or population-wide activity budgets

All occurrences or ad libitum sampling

Recording only occurrences of a specific behavior

Used for frequency of rare behaviors, like social encounters or mating

Many behaviors have strong implications for management (4)

• Habitat selection

• Home range & territory

• Seasonal activities (migration, breeding, dispersal, etc.)

• Habituation

Optimal foraging behavior (4)

• Where to search?

• When to search?

• What to search for?

• How long should it take to process what it has found?

Antipredator behavior

• correct behavioral responses to predator risks are essential for prey species

• cryptic coloration

• vigilance

• landscape of fear

vigilance

• scanning of environment for threats is critical for early detection of a predator

• impacts time available for feeding

• groups share this responsibility

landscape of fear

• caused by indirect effects of predators 

• Prey may adjust habitat used based on perceived threats

• Prey may adjust activity times to avoid predation

Monogamy

• Occurs when females either scattered or not defensible, so choose one; 

• produces greatest genetic variability in the population, more individuals get to breed

  • theoretically everyone can reproduce 

Polygyny

• Males have multiple mates

• occurs when females defensible, so form harems

• many males don’t get to breed; have to wait or not at all 

• genetic variability of population may become low in closed systems

Polyandry

• Females have multiple mates

• males often important in care of young

• seen mostly in birds

Promiscuity

• Multiple partners for both sexes

• produces excellent genetic variability in the population, as most individuals get to breed

Courtship

• can make normally secretive animals conspicuous

• may be more vulnerable during courtship 

• woodcock courtship

  • used to estimate population 

  • peent count

    • Volunteers drive, pause for 2 min. every .64 km & listen

    • Counting males, and then estimating population size depends on knowledge of the sex ratio

nesting or denning sites

• may be habitats different from those used at other times of the year

• management must recognize the significance of these sites

behavioral issues in wildlife management

• Black ducks and eastern mallard populations separated by habitat preferences

  • Black ducks prefer forest wetlands

  • Mallards were found in more open habitat

• Human habitat modification, loss of forest habitat, and plasticity of mallard behavior has resulted in incomplete sexual isolation of the species 

  • Female black ducks prefer mallard males

  • Genetic swamping of the black duck is occurring

• Management actions:

  • Reduce harvest of black duck

  • Maintain mallard-free habitats for black duck

  • Expand black duck habitat

spatial use by wildlife (4)

• Nomadic—

  • no fidelity to any particular space (e.g. caribou)

• Home Range—

  • fidelity to a particular space, primarily for daily use, but not to the exclusion of others

• Home Range w/Core Area—

  • core area may be nearly restricted to the individual

• Territory—

  • defended by individual or group for their exclusive use

territory

• are defended against other of the same species

• usually males but could be females or groups

• resource protection

• Physical structure of some male mammals adapted for territory establishment and defense (not limited to mammals)

• Territories often identified by scent &/or scrapings in ungulates

• Territories set limits on size of the breeding population and may vary in size due to availability of resources 

territory may be established seasonally

• usually in association with breeding

• or may be territories for courtship 

• or food 

• or nesting/denning sites

• or other resources of value

cost:benefit of deafening a territory based on area size

• more resources bc quality of habitat is poor

• losing energy

lek behavior

• gathering of males for the purposes of competitive mating display 

• Sage grouse

• Ugandan kob

• Hammer-head bat

• Cock-of-the Rock

sexual segregation

• Sexes may be found in different locations at different times of the year

  • Sexes may be utilizing different habitats

• May be to protect vulnerable young 

  • i.e. big horn sheep ewes and young live on steeper slopes

• May be to avoid food competition 

circadian rhythms

• daily activity patterns

• taken into account when determining home range

• diurnal

  • day

• crepuscular

  • dawn/dusk

• nocturnal

  • night

circannual rhythms

• yearly patterns are important

• migration, breeding

ultradian rhythms

• patterns of less than a day

• REM sleep

• traffic flow

dispersal

• one way movement 

• innate dispersal

  • young leave home range

• environmental dispersal

  • behaviours response to environmental stresses

• could be sex biased

  • philopatric

    • stay close to birth place and parent

  • allopatric

    • disperse away from parents

• disadvantage

  • Young vulnerable in dispersal—higher mortality rates than residents

  • Young frequently excluded from optimum habitat by adult residents

• advantages

  • Maintain genetic variability

  • Repopulate depleted areas

  • Colonize new areas

habituation

• species adapt well to human activities

  • becomes a problem

  • bears

  • mountain lions

  • racoons

  • skunks

  • bird feeders

captive rearing for release

• may be poorly equipped for wild

  • need training in use of habitat and capture of prey

• imprinting must be avoided

migration

• two way travel

• moving back and forth from a location

• Anadromous fish-live in saltwater, breed in freshwater 

  • e.g. salmon

• Catadramous fish-live in freshwater, breed in saltwater 

  • e.g. American eel

• Altitudinal migrations-up and down mountains 

  • e.g. elk

• Latitudinal migrations-north to south, common in birds

management of migratory species

• need to know migration routes and seasonal habitats to protect species throughout their range

• must also protect specialized habitats required

• Must manage entire route

red knot/horseshoe crab - boom and bust

• Stop in Delaware Bay each spring on way to breeding grounds in Canada

• Feed on eggs of horseshoe crabs

  • Estimated 539 tons of eggs consumed by migratory shore birds each year

• Horseshoe crab population crashed-red knots can no longer feed optimally (fewer eggs)

• Red knot numbers declining

reptile migrations

• may be short or long

• sea turtles

  • very long

• timber rattlesnake

  • migrate to and from hibernacula

bird migration routes

• waterfowl intensively managed in the US

• US wildlife refuge system - 558

  • habitat management 

  • hunting management 

mammal migrations

• four groups migrate

  • bats

  • cetaceans

  • pinnipeds

  • ungilates

gray whale migration

• summer in the attic for feeding

• move to californian coast to breed

  • it is warmer, better for calves

  • no orcas

who do wildebeest and zebras migrate

• timed with rainfall

• migrate due to lack of sufficient, drinkable water

• as water dries, it becomes more saline

caribou

• Roads and pipelines interrupt migration routes in some locations, but not others?

  • Human activities, rather than structure may be the problem

• Climate change is changing migration patterns

  • Impacts on caribou and Inuits

  • Changes in migration and phenology of other species (timing of life history events—like flowering, nesting, etc.)

monarch butterfly

• travel 3,600 km to winter in the mountains of Mexico

• Micro-climate essential to survival

• Loss of it could cause extinction

• threatened

  • loss of milkweed